Description
Samba New York! is a world-renowned samba performance company dedicated to entertaining, educating, and uplifting people of all backgrounds with the exhilarating music and dance of Brazil.
We are a family-run company led by Founder and Director, Philip Galinsky and Managing Director, Valerie Galinsky — a husband-and-wife team committed to cultural, artistic, and business integrity and to providing extraordinary service to its clients and students.
Percussionist-ethnomusicologist Philip Galinsky founded the New-York-City-based organization in 2003 as a professional performance company inspired by the famous “samba schools” of the Rio Carnaval. Since then, Samba New York! has been teaching and promoting the richness and diversity of the samba — Brazil’s most famous music and dance form — bringing its highly-acclaimed classes, workshops, and performances to millions of people in New York City and beyond.
Since its founding in 2003, Samba New York! has emerged as one of the most influential samba institutions outside of Brazil, sharing samba culture with some of the world’s most prestigious companies, venues, and mass media and providing world-class training in the art of samba drumming to countless students of all musical backgrounds.
One of the most respected performers and educators of samba percussion in the US, Philip Galinsky, Ph.D. — a.k.a. “Dr. Samba” — now shares his passion, knowledge, and over 25 years experience in the field to even more students through Samba New York’s online educational project, “Learn To Play Samba.” This cutting-edge program features intensive courses that combine group learning, prerecorded videos, scores, and the option of one-on-one feedback from Dr. Samba himself!
Samba New York’s motto is “Live The Rhythm,” because we go beyond ordinary performance and instruction. Instead, we invite people to make samba culture a transformational and fully integrated part of their lives, whether for one moment or a lifetime.